Added-Time: Chelsea, United draw, Cardiff springs an upset

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Ken Rodney, TSN.ca8/27/2013 2:55:50 PM

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Added-Time takes a look back at BPL action, this week, Chelsea and Manchester United played to a hard fought draw, Cardiff City earned the best win of the early season in their Premier League home debut and Arsenal got their campaign on track with a dominant performance at Craven Cottage.

Manchester United made their first start at home with new manager David Moyes at the helm and he in turn made the decision to start Wayne Rooney in front of the supporters against Chelsea.

Rooney was one of three attacking threats that started the game for United, as he was in the lineup along-side both Robin van Persie and Danny Wellbeck.

"He's been great in training and anybody who was watching might have seen a slightly leaner-looking Wayne," said Moyes. "I thought he worked back, he tackled, he chased. I think Wayne has a positive mind at the moment."

Despite having all of that offensive power on the pitch, United was not able to find the breakthrough for a goal that would have brought life to a match that ended in a 0-0 draw.

Chelsea, meanwhile, went the other way leaving all of their recognized strikers on the bench, with only Fernando Torres eventually making his way into the match.

Juan Mata was kept on the sidelines by Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, who with the point earned in this contest, find themselves at the top of the table though having played one more game than the majority of the teams.

"I think for us, after two home victories, to come to the champions in their first match at home and get a point, I think it's fine, it's positive," said Mourinho.

Playing in their all-time first home Premier League fixture, many would have thought Cardiff City was out of their depth against title contending Manchester City.

Many would be proven wrong.

Fraizer Campbell converted two second-half corners and his team held on for a thrilling 3-2 victory, their first in the top-flight of English soccer in over 50 years.

"We'll be the underdogs for a lot of the games this season but, as we showed, we've got great determination and hopefully that'll see us through," said Campbell. "The most special thing was getting the three points. When you're a promoted side, you don't want to wait too long to get any points on the board so today was a massive bonus for us."

Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko fired home a beautiful opener and it looked as though his side would complete the victory as expected, however after Aron Gunnarsson leveled the score Cardiff took over the game.

Taking advantage of poor defensive marking in the box and positional play by keeper Joe Hart, Campbell took control of the match and captured the upset for the home-side.

Looking to bounce back from a very poor opening match, Lukas Podolski fired home twice and Olivier Giroud also was on target as Arsenal dispatched Fulham 3-1.

"It's never easy to play away or win away and we did it in a convincing way," said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. "We had a disappointing result against Villa and it was important to respond."

Arsenal never looked in danger of losing as they controlled the action from start to finish, with keeper Wojciech Szczesny turning away a few Adel Taarabt chances.

Fulham's Darren Bent did pull one back in the 77th minute, but it was not enough to change the result of the contest.

In other action, Liverpool, Stoke City, Hull City and Tottenham were also winners in Barclays Premier League action.

With a few days left in the transfer window, there are still a few interesting names that are rumoured to be on the move. The most talked about of these is Tottenham's Gareth Bale, who despite many stories to the contrary, has yet to complete his move to Real Madrid or any other club for that matter.

The latest word out of White Hart Lane is that the team has received new bids for the player from other teams interested in his services.

It's also possible that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is delaying the process as long as possible because he is upset at Real Madrid's actions in regards to them acting as though the deal has already been finished.

While the process is taking place, Bale continues to sit out of Tottenham's lineup and now he is also not taking part in practices.Three BPL games will air on TSN and TSN2 on Saturday.

The action kicks off on TSN, where Manchester City will take on Hull at 7am et/4am pt.

Following that game there is a doubleheader on TSN2, first, West Ham will lock up against Stoke City at 9:30am et/6:30am pt. and finally, Crystal Palace will battle Sunderland at Noon et/9am pt.